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An image made available on the jihadist website Welayat Salahuddin on June 11, 2014 shows militants of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) posing with the trademark Jihadists flag after they allegedly seized an Iraqi army checkpoint in the northern Iraqi province of Salahuddin. Jihadists are pushing toward Baghdad on June 12, 2014 after capturing a town just hours to the north, as the US mulled air strikes in a bid to bolster Iraq's collapsing security forces. AFP PHOTO / HO / WELAYAT SALAHUDDIN=== RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / HO / WELAYAT SALAHUDDIN" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS FROM ALTERNATIVE SOURCES, THEREFORE AFP IS NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY DIGITAL ALTERATION ===-/AFP/Getty Images

A demonstrator receives assistance after being injured during an anti-World Cup protest on the morning the Brazilian mega-city hosts the tournament's opening match, in Sao Paulo on June 12, 2014. Police fired tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets to break up dozens of protesters gathering near a Sao Paulo subway station with a red banner reading "If we have no rights, there won't be a Cup," saying they planned to march as close as possible to Corinthians Arena, the city's World Cup stadium. AFP PHOTO / LAURENT THOMETLAURENT THOMET/AFP/Getty Images

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(FILES) This undated file picture released by North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) on June 10, 2014 shows North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un (C) inspecting the Hydro-meteorological Service in Pyongyang. North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un has censured his country's weather service for "incorrect" forecasts in a rare public dressing down of a government body in the reclusive nation, which suffers regular natural disasters. AFP PHOTO / KCNA via KNS REPUBLIC OF KOREA OUT THIS PICTURE WAS MADE AVAILABLE BY A THIRD PARTY. AFP CAN NOT INDEPENDENTLY VERIFY THE AUTHENTICITY, LOCATION, DATE AND CONTENT OF THIS IMAGE. THIS PHOTO IS DISTRIBUTED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED BY AFP ---EDITORS NOTE--- RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / KCNA VIA KNS" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTSKNS/AFP/Getty Images

WASHINGTON, DC - JUNE 11: U.S. House Majority Whip Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) (C) passes through the Statuary Hall of the Capitol after a vote on the House floor June 11, 2014 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC. House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) has lost his Virginia primary to Tea Party challenger Dave Brat in the night before, opening up a slot for Majority Leader. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

As Brazil prepared to play Croatia to kick off the 2014 World Cup, riot police fired tear gas, rubber bullets and stun grenades Thursday at protesters in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, injuring three journalists from the AP and CNN. More than 300 demonstrators tried to block traffic on a highway leading to the stadium in Sao Paulo but were pushed back by the police response. Many demonstrators object to the lavish spending on World Cup stadiums despite Brazil’s poverty, and some are anarchist adherents of the “Black Bloc,” which helped shut down the 1999 World Trade Summit in Seattle. About 300 protesters in Rio were also dispersed by tear gas, and some were taken into custody. However, recent demonstrations were small compared to those last year, when a million people took to the streets in just one night to protest the state of Brazil’s public services.

The al-Qaida spinoffs that have taken over much of northern Iraq vowed Thursday to march on Baghdad, and President Barack Obama said he was not ruling out any options on how to help the country, including short-term military assistance. Signs emerged that the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is backed by former military officers of dictator Saddam Hussein’s regime, including his former deputy Izzat Ibrahim al-Douri. Kurdish security forces took over an air base and other posts abandoned by the Iraqi army in Kirkuk, but a senior official there denied they had taken over the oil-rich city. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki asked parliament this week to declare a state of emergency that would give him increased powers to run the country, but the lawmakers Thursday failed to assemble a quorum to do so. “We do have a stake in making sure that these jihadists are not getting a permanent foothold in either Iraq or Syria, for that matter,” Obama said. The German government called on its citizens to evacuate Baghdad and other parts of the country amid the fighting.

California’s Rep. Kevin McCarthy appeared poised to win the No. 2 spot in the House Republican leadership after Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas bowed out Thursday. The position, from which Virginia’s Eric Cantor will resign next month after his primary defeat Tuesday, is also being sought by Pete Sessions of Texas, but McCarthy, currently the No. 3, is seen as favored. The McClatchy-Tribune News Service said McCarthy, of Bakersfield, is “all but assured” of becoming the next House majority leader, though he is by no means the top choice among tea party lawmakers. Speaker John Boehner sidestepped a question Thursday about his preference, saying that whoever was elected, he would work with him.

Texas Gov. Rick Perry raised eyebrows in a speech in San Francisco when he said homosexuality is like alcoholism — you can quit if you want. Responding to a question Wednesday at the Commonwealth Club about a plank in the Texas Republican platform on seeking voluntary counseling to “cure” homosexuality, Perry said that “whether or not you feel compelled to follow a particular lifestyle or not, you have the ability to decide not to do that,” according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The former presidential candidate went on: “I may have the genetic coding that I’m inclined to be an alcoholic, but I have the desire not to do that, and I look at the homosexual issue the same way.”

Rain in the forecast, or re-education camp? Weather forecasters in the People’s Republic of Kim Jong Number Un had better check their charts twice after the North Korean leader complained about “many inaccurate forecasts” made by the state’s meteorologists. The North’s maximum leader made a field trip to the Hydro-Meteorological Service, state media reported Tuesday, “to learn in detail about meteorological observation and weather forecast.” He said there had been “many incorrect forecasts as the meteorological observation has not been put on a modern and scientific basis,” according to the official Korean Central News Agency.

The Wire, a summary of top national and world news stories from the Associated Press and other wire services, moves weekdays. Contact Karl Kahler at 408-920-5023; follow him at twitter.com/karl_kahler.